In general, a commercially available cigarette pack contains an inner pack. The inner pack is fabricated by wrapping a bundle of filter cigarettes arranged in three staggered rows, or a so-called cigarette bundle, in an inner wrapper.
For that reason, equipment for manufacturing cigarette packs comprises an inner-pack wrapping machine. The wrapping machine receives a cigarette bundle and an inner wrapper at their respective feeding positions, and wraps the cigarette bundle in the inner wrapper.
The wrapping machine is therefore provided with a feeder for feeding the cigarette bundle towards the feeding position. The feeder includes a hopper storing a large number of cigarettes, discharge ducts arranged below the hopper and forming hopper outlets, and duct-side pushers placed near the lower ends of their respective discharge ducts (Patent Document 1).
More specifically, the inside of each of the discharge ducts is divided by partition walls into a plurality of discharge passages extending downwards. Each of the discharge passages delivers filter cigarettes contained in the hopper so that the cigarettes are aligned in a horizontal posture. The filter cigarettes are stacked in staggered rows on a bottom plate located under the discharge ducts, thereby being formed into a cigarette bundle.
The cigarette bundle is pushed out by the duct-side pusher from the side of the filter end face of the cigarette bundle, and thus transferred from the bottom plate towards a transporting bucket located on a conveyor. There is another well-known feeder of this type, in which an elevating transfer and a transfer-side pusher are interposed between the conveyor and the bottom plate.
In this case, the transfer receives a cigarette bundle pushed out of the bottom plate and then descends with the cigarette bundle. In a descent position, the cigarette bundle is further pushed out by the transfer-side pusher from the side of the filter end face of the bundle. The cigarette bundle is thus received by the transporting bucket located on the conveyor, and is transported with the bucket towards the feeding position of the wrapping machine.